What Malcolm Turnbull can teach about ambition - Women's Agenda

What Malcolm Turnbull can teach about ambition

The hyper ambitious achieve their desired goals by deploying some risky tactics.

The clever ones get the timing of the risks they take exactly right.

Malcolm Turnbull did that last night in challenging Prime Minister Tony Abbott to a leadership spill of the Liberal party, and consequently winning the vote and becoming Australia’s 29th Prime Minister.

Tony Abbott, meanwhile, was scrambling after Turnbull marched into his office shortly after Question Time to declare the challenge was on. This was despite the fact Abbott must have had plenty of time to prepare for such a moment. He took hours to respond to the media. During the evening, he kept the media and his own party guessing about the actual timing of the vote.

The Ballot happened around 9:15pm. Turnbull emerged victorious and will be sworn in as Prime Minister this morning.

For Turnbull, this moment has been a long, long time coming. A former Opposition leader, before losing a spill to Abbott by just one vote, he’s continued his career in politics, despite seemingly sacrificing many of his own political agendas along the way.

He could have gone back into business and returned to making a significant amount of money, with his personal ideologies intact. But he stayed on, no doubt frustrated by the party that was imploding around him. But no doubt also knowing that timing could be enough to see him elevated .

He knew Abbott would self destruct. The three word slogans couldn’t last. It would only be a matter of time before Abbott’s continual slip ups and obvious inability to lead came to a head. Turnbull could simply sit back and let the children do the work, stepping in as a responsible adult when the mess got too much.

That’s the delicate balance of ambition. Of course you’re opportunistic and of course you’re self-interested, that’s much of what ambition is. But to be opportunistic is to look greedy and self interested. To be impatient is to look arrogant and out of control.

Stepping up when the timing’s just right is a special kind of skill.

Thirty nine MPs voted against Abbott during an attempted leadership spill earlier this year, despite Abbott having no challenger. Turnbull didn’t run. The timing was off, and he knew it’d only be a matter of months before he could swing a majority of MPs on side. Those who turned may never like Turnbull, but they’d like keeping their jobs more.

Abbott was given six months to prove he could turn things around. His last week in office was probably one of his better weeks to date. But he managed to stuff that one up too, participating in a disastrous interview on the ABC, laughing at a bad joke from his immigration minister, underneath a microphone boom. Turnbull couldn’t have written the script any better.

In a well rehearsed speech around 4pm yesterday, Turnbull finally made his move, tapping many of the frustrations voters feel about the current leadership. We need leaders that respect our intelligence, he said. We need advocacy, not slogans. We need to end the ‘captains picks’.

No one wants to be seen as an assassin, who steals a job he or she doesn’t deserved

Rather, you want to be seen as the person who steps up for the greater good of the business, or community, or the party, or in this case the country (Turnbull probably believes it). You’re there to save the team from itself. To initiate a coup that can change the fortunes of (almost) all of those involved.

So by all means be ambitious for leadership. Step up for what your perceive as yours.

Just consider Turnbull’s lesson on ambition. You can have all the aspirations you want but when it comes to leadership, especially if that means taking it from someone else, you have to get your timing right.

Of course it didn’t all go according to plan for Turnbull. He would have preferred a much higher majority of his party’s votes, rather than the margin of ten he won by. He’s got some work to do to prove he’s truly in command.

However, given the timing, and the fact he essentially left it to Abbott to destroy himself, it seems unlikely he’ll see the same level of destabilising that Kevin Rudd inflicted on Julia Gillard’s leadership when he was ousted from the top job.

Turnbull may emerge the assassin to some but the adult to many others. He has the intellect to drive significant change in the Liberal party and the charisma to re-engage Australian voters. But will he be able to garner enough support from within?

For now, it doesn’t matter. Turnbull played his cards right and got what he desired.

×

Stay Smart! Get Savvy!

Get Women’s Agenda in your inbox